South Korea: DP's Lee leads PPP's Kim 45 pc to 36 pc

Seoul, May 23 (IANS) South Korean Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was leading his People Power Party (PPP) rival Kim Moon-soo with 45 per cent support against Kim's 36 per cent, a survey showed Friday.

In a Gallup Korea survey conducted on 1,002 adults from Tuesday to Thursday, candidate Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party came in third with 10 percent. Eight percent said they were undecided.

The DP's Lee declined by 6 percentage points compared with a week earlier, while Kim and Lee Jun-seok saw increases of 7 percentage points and 2 percentage points, respectively.

The support for the liberal DP was at 42 per cent, compared with 36 per cent for the conservative PPP.

The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points at a 95 per cent confidence level, Yonhap news agency reported.

Meanwhile, on Friday, four presidential candidates were set to wrangle over social issues in their second TV debate, with the June 3 election just 11 days away.

Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party (NRP) garnered his first double-digit support, as Kim continued to appeal the NRP candidate to merge their candidacies to better challenge the DP's Lee.

On Thursday, the NRP's Lee declared that he would not drop his candidacy until Election Day.

The three candidates and Kwon Young-kook of the minor Democratic Labor Party will take part in the debate at 8 p.m., hosted by the National Election Commission.

During the debate, the candidates will discuss ways to bridge social divisions and promote national unity, as well as pension and health care reforms, and climate change.

The DP's Lee is expected to highlight his vision of becoming a leader capable of bridging ideological and regional divides as he has previously mentioned social cohesion as a top duty of the president.

Kim of the PPP is likely to stress his personal integrity by drawing contrast with his DP rival, who is mired in multiple legal controversies, and to criticize Lee's policy vision of a "basic society" as populist.

The NRP's Lee is also expected to target the DP candidate by bringing up his controversies, which include election law violation and misuse of public funds.

During the debate, Kim and the NRP's Lee may spar over the possibility of their candidacy merger.

The upcoming election will choose a successor to former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached over a botched martial law attempt in December.

--IANS

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